The present invention relates to the preprocessing of digital information, for example video information, prior to subjecting the digital information to a lossy transformation process such as a data compression process.
With the convergence of digital information in the home, a need has arisen for the integration of home computers with other information appliances. In co-pending application Ser. Nos. 08/792,003 and 08/792.361, both filed Jan. 31, 1997, and assigned to the Assignee of the present invention, an exemplary digital wireless home network was described. The network has at its heart an information furnace that allows users to enjoy a variety of multimedia content distributed from a host computer to various appliances throughout the home. Within this vision of the information furnace, the home computer is established as the central aggregation point for digital content in the home, which content is then wirelessly distributed to locations and appliances throughout the home that are optimal for its consumption. These alternative consumption locations enable new dynamics in the use of multimedia content, including mobility, comfort, social interaction, and linkages with other household appliances, such as audio/visual systems. The information furnace further allows users to consume the content in their preferred locations (and even be mobile in the home if desired), enables multiple users to simultaneously interact with the content, and reduces the cost of the appliances used to access the content (computing resources, such as the CPU, memory and modem are leveraged from a central source).
The distribution of video information as part of the home network environment presents certain challenges for the network designer. For example, digital video information ordinarily destined for display on a computer monitor or other display unit is generally provided in an R-G-B (red-green-blue), noninterlaced format for that video display unit. If consumer appliances such as televisions are to make use of the video information, the format of this information must be altered to an acceptable format (e.g., NTSC compatible, interlaced video information). Thus, what is needed is a scheme for preprocessing the video information prior to presentation on the television display screen.
Processing digital information made up of a plurality of n-bit samples is performed by raising each n-bit value to an x-bit value, x being greater than n. The x-bit values represent mid-band values, wherein in this context a band includes a sequential set of x-bit values having n most significant bits in common and a mid-band value is then an x-bit value approximately centered between the lowest and highest x-bit values of a band including that mid-band value. In some embodiments, the digital information may comprise video information. Thus, the process may be applied prior to converting the video information from a first color space (e.g., a red-green-blue (R-G-B) color space) to a second color space (e.g., a luminance-chrominance (Y-Cr-Cb) color space). For a particular embodiment, n may be equal to five or six, and x may be equal to eight, however, in general n may be variable amongst different ones of the samples.
Additional embodiments may provide a network server that includes a video processor configured to process video information as described above prior to converting the video information from a first color space to a second color space to produce color corrected video information. The server may also include a radio configured to transmit the color corrected video information to at least one network client across a wireless link. In some cases, the color corrected video information may be compressed prior to transmission. Still further embodiments may provide color space correctors configured to perform the mid-banding processes, discussed above. Further, computer networks may include a server configured to convert video information from a first color space to a second color space by first mid-banding the video information and then color correcting the mid-banded video information to produce color corrected video information. Such networks may also include a client coupled in wireless communication with the server; the client being configured to receive the color corrected video information.
Additional embodiments may be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon review of the following description and its accompanying drawings.